History of the Court

The ICTY delivered [PDF] its first indictment ever against Dragan Nikolic, the director of the Serb-run Susica Detention Camp in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in November 1994. He was accused of committing crimes against non-Serbs, including sexual violence and torture. After he pleaded guilty in September 2003, his sentence was later reduced from 23 years to 20 years.

Indicted in November 1995, Radovan Kardazic and Ratko Mladic were major figures in the Srebrenica genocide. Neither man was immediately apprehended. After a global manhunt, Kardazic was captured in May 2008. His formal indictment detailed [PDF] his involvement in an organized plan to commit genocide against Bosnian Muslims and Croats. Kardazic's trial began in October 2009, and it is ongoing. Mladic proved even more elusive, evading capture until 2011. His indictment included [PDF] charges of genocide, persecution, extermination, murder, deportation and inhumane acts. His trial began in May 2012.

ICTY judgments have also included acquittals. Charged with breaching the Geneva Conventions, Zejnil Delalic was acquitted in November 1998. Initially found guilty of crimes against humanity and violations of the laws and customs of war in April 2011, Ante Gotovina and Mladen Markac had their convictions overturned on appeal to the Appeals Chamber of the ICTY in November 2012, because the artillery impact evidence used by the trial court was deemed insufficient to convict the men of targetting towns in the Krajina region of Croatia.

The highest-profile ICTY trial to date was that of Slobodan Milosevic, the President of Serbia from 1989 until 1997 and the President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from 1997 until 2000. In May 1999, Milosevic was the first sitting head of state to be indicted by an international tribunal. His formal charges included [PDF] genocide, murder, torture, unlawful confinement, inhumane acts, extermination and attacks on civilians, among others. Separate indictments were filed for his crimes in Kosovo, Bosnia and Croatia. His trial began in February 2002, but he died of a heart attack in March 2006 before a verdict could be rendered.